CFUnited Blog

Object Think is a technique for object modeling applications. It is the foundation for designing applications using S.A.M., a methodology that Simon adopted largely from the techniques taught in Streamlined Object Modeling and "purist" theories on OOP. Object Think is, in Simon's own words, "the most important skill that a software architect could have at their disposal". Its goal is to demystify design patterns and lead to better software design by teaching architects how to think and by making common sense out of architectural best practices.

With Flex 2.0 Data Services, developers can create applications with features previously unavailable using any other web technologies. In this session, you will see some of these possibilities and learn specifically how ColdFusion integrates with Flex Enterprise Services and why it is a great choice as a backend for Flex Data Services enabled applications. Previous experience with ColdFusion/Flex applications will be helpful, but not essential.

In this 20-30 minute session, Patrick Quinn will preview his one-hour class on Application Server Analytics (ASA), an evolving niche in Web-based software development. It consists of a combination of tools and methodologies for real-time monitoring and troubleshooting of Web sites and applications. The goal of ASA is to improve performance and stability (and thus uptime) for Web applications by helping developers and systems administrators "see" application server internals much more clearly, and also by allowing for much easier use of ASA metrics to fix and even prevent problems..

Planning to move to CF8? Did you skip either 6 or 7? Or have you perhaps installed and been running on them but doing little or no new development? Were you paying attention as all the new features (and folks' experiences using them) were being shared? There may be a lot you've missed. Veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will introduce both the key features introduced in those releases as well as many hidden gems. It's surprising how many little things get slipped into releases, and point releases, and sometimes it's those which can be as important to you as any prominent feature. In his typical encyclopedic but pragmatic style, Charlie will help you make the most out of features you may have missed. Of course, this is just a 20- minute preview of what is in fact a day-long course. But it will give a taste of what's to expect and will provide value in and of itself.

In this 20-30 minute session, Oguz Demirkapi will preview his day-long class which will explain the theory of creating multi-language applications and methods in ColdFusion with best practices. The main goals of this class are explaining multi-language applications theory, defining requirements and solutions, and providing best practices with direct coding in class.

In this 20-30 minute session, Mark Drew will preview his one-hour class, CFEClipse Plus!, presenting how to use some advanced features in CFEclipse, with an in-depth look at modifying the libraries to add your own tags, using ant as part of your development process and demonstrations of the new features in CFEclipse. This presentation is geared towards current users of CFEclipse.

Non-trivial applications require functional and load testing beyond "shift-F5" and a developer checking his own work manually. This is particularly true for richer interfaces, like those that can be created with Flex. RIAs allow for richer user interaction and more permutations that require testing. This session will introduce you to functional and load testing techniques, methodologies, and software related to testing Flex applications. While the performance testing information can be applied to any backend server product, specific attention will be paid to the use of ColdFusion as the backend server. Some previous experience with Flex will be helpful, but not essential, for this session.

The conventional wisdom for working with CFCs is that you should provide returntypes and argument types for methods. This idea stems from working with strongly-typed languages such as Java and C#. What if, though, we accepted ColdFusion as a dynamically-typed language, such as Smalltalk or Ruby? This talk explores the problems "duck typing" solves and the new possibilities it opens.